Dietary sugars, both processed and natural, provide a form of carbohydrate your body uses for energy. An excess intake of dietary sugars increases you risk of developing coronary heart disease, advises Barbara Mendez, a nutritional consultant and registered dietician in New York City. Since dietary sugars are present in many natural and processed foods, monitoring your sugar intake may help prevent coronary heart disease.
Sugars and Coronary Heart Disease
Diets containing more than 20 percent of calories from dietary sugars, such as sucrose, glucose and fructose increase the level of triglycerides in your blood, according to a report published in the August 2009 issue of "Circulation," a journal published by the American Heart Association. Elevated triglyceride levels are linked to increased plaque buildup in your arteries, explains Dr. Steven C. Herrman, a cardiologist at Bradford Regional Medical Center. This plaque buildup causes atherosclerosis and may lead to coronary heart disease.
Types of Dietary Sugar
Dietary sugar occurs naturally in foods such as vegetables, fruit, some grains and milk. Other foods such as prepackaged foods, baked goods and sweetened drinks contain added sugar in the form of both natural sugars and processed sugars. Dietary sugars have no nutritional value other than increasing your calorie intake, but they do serve a role in food processing. Food processing relies on both natural and processed sugars to preserve foods, provide bulk, assist in fermentation, maintain freshness and improve taste, explains Mendez. Foods contain added sugars if the nutrition label contains any form of sugar in the list of ingredients, such as high-fructose corn syrup, grape juice concentrate, honey, date sugar, maple sugar, molasses, agave nectar, maple syrup, fructose or sucrose.
Intake Recommendations
The number of calories Americans consume each day has increased by 150 to 300 calories between 1970 and 2005, according to the "Circulation" report. This report emphasizes that about half of this increase comes in the form of liquid calories, such as those found in fruit juices, soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened drinks. The American Heart Association recommends limiting your intake of added calories to no more than half of your discretionary calories, which are calories included in a healthy diet that account for extra fat and sugar. For most women, this means consuming no more than 100 calories a day from added sugars. For most men, this means consuming less than 150 calories each day from added sugars. As a reference point, a 12 oz. can of cola contains around 8 tsp. of sugar, or 130 added sugar calories.
Reducing Dietary Sugar Intake
Small changes to your diet can help reduce your intake of dietary sugars. Limit your intake of fruits to no more than two servings a day, advises Mendez. Cook most of your meals at home from whole foods and avoid buying processed or prepackaged foods, especially drinks and snacks. Limit the amount of sugar you add to food. Finally, incorporate more whole grains into your diet to replace white breads, pastas and rice.
References
- Barbara M. Mendez R.Ph. M.S.; Private Practice; New York, New York
- "Circulation"; Dietary Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Health; Rachel K. Johnson, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., et al.; August 2009
- Steven C. Herrmann, M.D. Ph.D., FACC, FASE; Bradford Regional Medical Center; Bradford, Pennsylvania
